xiv, 992 pages : 24 cm

Discusses the life and faith of Pope John Paul II

Includes bibliographical references (pages 947-956) and index

Prologue: The Disciple -- The drama of Karol Wojtyla's life -- A paradox and a sign of contradiction -- The more excellent way -- The broadness of a guage -- The subject and the author -- A Son of Freedom: Poland Semper Fidelis -- Karol Wojtyla's national, cultural, religious, and family roots -- His childhood, his elementary and secondary education, the loss of his mother and brother -- The influence of his father on his education and piety -- His interests in Polish Romantic literature and in drama -- His first undergraduate year at Krakow's Jagiellonian University -- From the Underground: The Third Reich vs. the Kingdom of Truth -- The Nazi Occupation of Poland -- Karol Wojtyla and clandestine cultural resistance -- His introduction to Carmelite spirituality and manual labor -- The death of his father and the unfolding of a priestly vocation -- The underground seminary -- An "unbroken prince," Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha -- Karol Wojtyla's ordination and graduate studies in theology in Rome -- "Call Me Wujek": To Be a Priest -- Country curate -- Father Karol Wojtyla's pioneering student chaplaincy in Krakow -- His first essays and poems -- The temptation of revolutionary violence and Wojtyla's first mature play -- An outdoorsman and a model confessor -- The beauty of human love -- Seeing Things as They Are: The Making of a Philosopher -- A second doctorate, a new philosophical interest, and a new career -- Karol Wojtyla at the Catholic University of Lublin -- The Lublin challenge to modern skepticism -- A book on love and sexuality that raises a few eyebrows -- A New Pentecost: Vatican II and the Crisis of Humanism -- The youngest bishop in Poland -- The Second Vatican Council -- Karol Wojtyla is named Archbishop of Krakow -- Setting Vatican II's defense of freedom on a firm philosophical foundation -- Successor to St. Stanislaw: Living the Council in Krakow -- A cardinal at age forty-seven -- Wojtyla's quest for religious freedom in Krakow -- An extensive local implementation of Vatican II -- The mature essayist, poet, and playwright -- A distinctive style and a unique set of friends -- Testing the world stage -- A Pope from a Far Country: The Election of John Paul II -- The Church at the death of Pope Paul VI -- The "September Papacy" of Pope John Paul I -- The election of Karol Jozef Wojtyla as the first Slavic Pope in history and the first non-Italian in 455 years, to the surprise of many, but not all, concerned -- "Be Not Afraid!": A Pope for the World -- An earthquake in the papacy and the Vatican -- Redefining the public ministry of the Bishop of Rome -- An alternative theology of liberation -- Program notes for a pontificate -- Preventing a war in Latin America -- Consternation in the Kremlin -- "How Many Divisions Has the Pope?": Confronting an Empire of Lies -- The cultural power of the politically powerless -- An epic pilgrimage to Poland -- Nine days that bent the curve of modern history -- A revolution of conscience -- The Ways of Freedom: Truths Personal and Public -- Marital intimacy as an icon of the inner life of God -- Denouncing sectarian violence in Ireland -- The Pope at the United Nations -- Religious freedom as the first human right -- Teenagers in a frenzy at Madison Square Garden -- Galileo reconsidered -- An appeal to Orthodoxy -- Peter Among Us: The Universal Pastor as Apostolic Witness -- The pilgrim Pope in Africa, France, Brazil, West Germany, and Asia -- Collegiality and crisis management -- In defense of the family -- A bold appointment in Paris -- The mysteries of fatherhood and mercy, divine and human -- In the Eye of the Storm: Months of Violence and Dissent -- The birth of Solidarity -- An unprecedented letter to Leonid Brezhnev -- The assassination attempt -- Shock therapy for the Jesuits -- The "Gospel of work" -- Martial law in Poland -- The Falklands/Malvinas War -- Liberating Liberations The Limits of Politics and the Promise of Redemption -- Revising Church law -- Canonizing a martyr of Auschwitz -- Confrontation in Nicaragua -- To recognize the saints God has made -- Restoring hope in Poland -- A seminar with agnostics and atheists -- A prison visit to a would-be papal assassin -- Suffering as a path to love -- Reliving the Council: Religion and the Renewal of a World Still Young -- Securing the legacy of Vatican II -- The "People Power" revolution in the Philippines -- Hosting world religious leaders in Assisi -- The first papal visit to the Synagogue of Rome -- The irrevocable Catholic commitment to Christian unity -- Addressing young Muslims in Casablanca -- A letter to the youth of the world -- Revamping the Vatican's press office -- Forward to Basics: Freedom Ordered to the Dignity of Duty -- Tear gas and the quest for democracy in Chile -- The beatification of Edith Stein -- A preview of communism's demise -- Hiking in the Dolomites -- The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in Rome -- Opening a dialogue with Mikhail Gorbachev -- The excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre -- A distinctive feminism -- Starting a homeless shelter in the Vatican -- Counselor to Andrei Sakharov -- After the Empire of Lies: Miracles and the Mandates of Justice -- John Paul II in Scandinavia -- The communist crack-up -- A letter to Deng Xiaoping -- Gorbachev in the Vatican -- Defining the meaning of the "Revolution of 1989" -- Challenging democracies to live freedom nobly -- The Gulf War -- The Catholic identity of Catholic universities -- To the Ends of the Earth: Reconciling an Unreconciled World -- The Church is a mission -- A storm of controversy with Orthodoxy -- The re-evangelization of Europe -- Priests for a new millennium -- Colon surgery -- The Catechism of the Catholic Church -- Rejecting clericalism in Poland -- Defending persecuted Christians in Sudan -- Taking on the Mafia in Sicily -- The Threshold of Hope: Appealing to Our Better Angels -- A surprise in Denver -- The renewal of moral theology -- Diplomatic relations with Israel -- Confronting the U.S. government at the Cairo World Population Conference -- More health problems -- A convent for contemplative nuns in the Vatican -- The debate on women and the priesthood -- An international bestseller -- Only One World: Human Solidarity and the Gospel of Life -- The Great Jubilee of 2000 -- The largest crowd in human history -- Another assassination attempt -- The "Gospel of life" -- The Vatican and the World Conference on Women in Beijing -- Asking Orthodox and Protestant Christians to help devise a papacy that could serve them -- A "witness to hope" addresses the United Nations again -- Singing in New York's Central Park -- The golden jubilee -- A Reasonable Faith: Beyond a Century of Delusions -- Revising the rules for papal elections -- France and Poland -- Sarajevo, Lebanon, and Cuba -- The longest-serving pope of the twentieth century -- Catholic renewal movements in St. Peter's Square -- John Paul II's twentieth anniversary -- The Church in defense of human reason -- Epilogue The Third Millennium: To See the Sun Rise -- The critiques of John Paul II are evaluated, his accomplishments are assayed, and a suggestion as to the nature of his greatness is offered

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